The Bike Shed

The Bike Shed CERES Bike Shed
At CERES, in Brunswick Victoria Australia
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Riding the Tour Aotearoa, by Ant - a ride report written by one of our volunteers. Part 3. See previous posts for part 1...
11/05/2026

Riding the Tour Aotearoa, by Ant - a ride report written by one of our volunteers. Part 3. See previous posts for part 1 and 2!

It was so utterly, completely brilliant. Every moment of it - even when it wasn't. The shock of daily early starts lessened, and as my fitness improved, the challenge of riding three long 10-15% gradient climbs in a row hurt less. The 35km stretch of freshly-graded gravel road to start one morning was no fun, but the hour-long conversation I had with a woman who was flagging TA riders down for a coffee break made it worthwhile. It's a little strange - creepy, even - to be flagged down by a complete stranger who knows your name and where you are (we all had trackers / emergency beacons, which allowed people to follow our progress on a website. And it happened multiple times over the 25-odd days it took me to finish.)

People along the way helped make the trip what it was. One night, bedraggled from hours of rain and dealing with a severely strained leg muscle, I knocked on the front door of a house to ask a couple of strangers whether they'd be willing to host me for the night. They did, and I met two wonderfully warm people, who also gave me strong painkillers and antinflammatories to get me back on track. As were the other riders - so many lovely people, so many conversations with them; some I rode with fleetingly, others for days. We supported each other, helped each other, provided spare parts and tools, and lifted each other's spirits.

I camped on the banks of a river on the edge of a mountain range. Overall, I camped one-third of nights. Another night, I was flagged down by a publican who was concerned about TA riders riding too late into the night, and was told to sleep in his pub's beer garden with the other riders he'd already collected. I rescued an injured hawk that was sitting, camouflaged and unnoticed, on the side of a highway.

The largest challenge I now face is readjusting to daily life. The TA shall remain one of the highlights of my entire life, so overwhelmingly brilliant it was. I don't know what shall come next, but I am acutely aware that the TA cannot remain a one-off adventure of this magnitude.

Riding the Tour Aotearoa, by Ant - a ride report written by one of our volunteers. Part 2. See previous post for part 1!...
06/05/2026

Riding the Tour Aotearoa, by Ant - a ride report written by one of our volunteers. Part 2. See previous post for part 1!

There wasn't an easy day. For instance, 1100m of climbing over 10km on a gravel road to cross a saddle, then 50km of loose gravel and the 23 water crossings that followed the steep descent into the valley. Or the 'ride' of the Big River Trail, which involved no fun whatsoever - rocks, mud, slippery tree roots, traversing voids to cross fallen trees, pushing up a steep hill while wading in a stream (and scaling a fallen tree) - but so, so much satisfaction upon completing it. Or riding 190km to catch a 2am ferry, sleeping on the floor for a couple of hours, and then setting off for a day of 100km, 1900m of climbing, and some of the hardest (and rockiest) riding I've ever attempted. I scared myself many times that day. Fast, flowing singletrack, bike trails, and country highways - the TA has it all.

Some days were short - only 6 1/2 hours of riding. My longest day was almost 13 1/2 hours and 190km, and a lot of climbing.  I lost a couple of days due to life issues (it's easy to forget that the rest of the world carries on as normal) and bicycle repairs. This included two new tyres - I'd narrowly avoided disaster when my front tyre almost failed spectacularly on the hardest downhill section of the TA.  But overall my bike was brilliant. Sure, a few people had made disparaging comments about it along the way ("What, you couldn't find any 32-inch wheels?"), but most people were supportive - even if slightly bemused - of my choice.  My backside discovered new locations to have saddle sores.  I replaced new bottom bracket after 2000km, my bottles cages snapped off multiple times, and I discovered my rear brake cable had almost snapped just before a long, steep descent.  And I still cannot feel all of my toes, a month after finishing.

Final part coming soon!

Riding the Tour Aotearoa, by Ant - a ride report written by one of our volunteers. Part 1.At sunrise on 26 February I wa...
04/05/2026

Riding the Tour Aotearoa, by Ant - a ride report written by one of our volunteers. Part 1.

At sunrise on 26 February I was at Cape Reinga, the northernmost point of mainland New Zealand, on a city cargo bike with 20" wheels and a full bikepacking kit, about to set off on a 3000km adventure to Bluff, the southernmost point of the NZ mainland. Along with 200 other people riding gravel bikes, hardtail and full suspension mountain bikes. And nobody else with rim brakes, let alone 20" wheels or a bike designed for a basket.

Words cannot fully describe what completing the Tour Aotearoa (TA) brevet is like. The TA brevet is not a race - there is no prize or glory for being first to finish. Finishing must be between 10 and 30 days, following a set route, and complying with a few basic rules. And riding 3000km of roads, trails, tracks, and water crossings (including five boats), through some of the most spectacular landscapes imaginable - subtropical rainforest, alpine tussock landscapes, lakes, coastal roads, so many hills and mountains, and on the beach.

Taking my time by setting off 15 minutes after almost everybody else (it's not a race, remember?), I was underway. 15km and some nasty hills later - all earlier than I usually wake up, I turned towards the beach. Reaching the beach involved cycling a few kilometres along a gravel road, in a stream on sand, and then pushing at least a kilometre through soft sand. Then it was cycling 80km in a straight line on 90 Mile Beach into a headwind. That's why we started early - to allow the tide to be out far enough for the sand to be hard, but enough time to finish before the tide comes in. It was hard work. I convinced other riders to form a slipstream train, which helped - but it was still a hard first day. The second day was even harder. My muscles already hurt from the beach, and the first climb of the day made them hurt more. The first pie for the day helped. Did you know that NZ has excellent pies? I didn't.

Part 2 coming soon!

The Bike Shed was happy to provide a bike to MJ recently, who was eager for a new set of wheels so he could go on rides ...
20/04/2026

The Bike Shed was happy to provide a bike to MJ recently, who was eager for a new set of wheels so he could go on rides with friends!

Having a bicycle can be an invaluable thing in someone's life, not just for getting to work or going to school, but for a feeling of social inclusion and self-sufficiency. The incredible support we receive through donations and the hard work of our volunteers allows us to provide refurbished bikes to people like MJ, as well as helping us to continue offering our fix-your-own-bike workshops free of charge to those in need.

If you work for a social care organisation and know of someone who you think would benefit from a free bicycle, please get in touch to refer them at [email protected]. We do our best to help whenever we can. This includes bikes for smaller children.

We have been so happy to see how popular our fix-your-own-bike workshops have become, and are often amazed at how many f...
20/04/2026

We have been so happy to see how popular our fix-your-own-bike workshops have become, and are often amazed at how many folk turn up to make use of our tools, perform repairs, and learn about bicycle maintenance from our volunteers.

Anyone who has visited recently will know that we can get quite busy, and there is often a bit of a wait to be seen. We really appreciate everyone's patience as they wait in the queue, and as we help participants as they work.

To help things run smoothly, we've put together some FAQs (slide 2). Please read these before coming along so you know what to expect.

As these workshops are primarily staffed by volunteers who give up their time to help, some sessions there will be more of us to help than others. Stands are available on a first come, first serve basis. Last admission is generally 4pm. However, we have frequently had to cut off the line earlier to ensure we are finished by 5pm.

We have updated our pricing slightly to help keep these sessions more sustainable. We continue to offer these workshops free of charge to anyone experiencing financial difficulties, no questions asked - just shoot us an email ahead of time. The cost for students and health care card holders remains unchanged.

For more information, please check out our website.

Bike of the week, available today! This Sh**un metro is living its best life, ready to cruise around town with its wide ...
11/04/2026

Bike of the week, available today! This Sh**un metro is living its best life, ready to cruise around town with its wide tyres, wide saddle, and even wider bars. Set up with a crisp shifting one-by drivetrain and some of the snappiest v-brakes ever. Just one of many amazing refurbished bikes available today.

We're taking a bit of an extended Easter break, and will not be open for our Thursday workshop or Saturday sales day thi...
29/03/2026

We're taking a bit of an extended Easter break, and will not be open for our Thursday workshop or Saturday sales day this week. We kindly ask that any donations are held on to until we reopen.

Hope everyone has a nice holiday! As the old Easter proverb goes, "may you feel as rested as a possum sleeping between two planks of wood in the upstairs section of a community bike space."

If you were planning on coming down to do any maintenance on your bike in preparation for some Easter holiday rides, be ...
26/03/2026

If you were planning on coming down to do any maintenance on your bike in preparation for some Easter holiday rides, be sure to come today as our workshop will not be running next week!

We've got a couple of bikes on offer this week that would be equally at home going off on some bushy adventures as they ...
20/03/2026

We've got a couple of bikes on offer this week that would be equally at home going off on some bushy adventures as they would be cruising around the streets of Brunswick.

The Trek 4300 has some great parts fitted to it, including 27.5" tyres, some very grippy hydraulic brakes, and plenty of rack space. The Giant ALM1 has a beautiful frame in great condition, and is fitted with slightly narrower 26" tyres, but theres plenty of space for bigger ones if the intention is to take it off road.

We've also got some really nice drop bar road bikes available (not pictured).

A reminder that our sales will be at the earlier time of 9am-11am this week due to the harvest festival. We'll be offering free bike checks to festival attendees from 12pm-3pm. You can get tickets to the event in the CERES bio.

This Saturday is the harvest festival! This means the Bike Shed will be open for bike sales at the earlier time of 9am ...
16/03/2026

This Saturday is the harvest festival! This means the Bike Shed will be open for bike sales at the earlier time of 9am to 11am.

We will then be offering free bike checks to festival attendees from 12pm to 3pm. Drop by with your bike so we can give it a safety check, diagnose any pesky issues, and help with some minor repairs.

For tickets to the festival, check out the link in CERES' bio. Please note that you will need a ticket to get into the park. However, if you're just coming down for the morning bike sale, you'll be able to enter.

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Melbourne, VIC

Opening Hours

11am - 4pm

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